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Blockstack PBC Raises $23M in Token Offerings

We are pleased to announce that the sale period for Blockstack’s SEC-qualified token offering ended yesterday, and we announced our Asia strategic round earlier. We want to thank the thousands of you that have participated. For the first time, retail investors in the United States were able to participate in a token offering qualified by the SEC. More than 4,500 individuals and entities participated in the 2019 token offerings. Blockstack PBC has entered into agreements for more than $23M in these offerings (including both our SEC-qualified token offering and our offering to investors outside the United States made under Regulation S). Investors include Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital, Recruit Holdings, Arrington XRP Capital, Hashkey Group, Fenbushi Capital, Frontier Ventures, Spartan Group, and other funds.

In addition to retail investors, attracting strategic investors from Asia was a key goal of our token offerings. We announced earlier that Hashkey and SNZ led our Asia strategic round. Recruit, one of the largest internet companies in Japan, partnered for the Japanese market. And we are in discussions with international investors for an additional $5M+ which may be distributed in a separate private placement or in a follow-on SEC-qualified offering, as we have previously disclosed in our SEC filings. The goal of this additional distribution is to continue growing our community and network in Asia.

One of our goals for working with regulators in the United States was to open up our network to a broader audience. We wanted to reach more retail investors who can be users of the Blockstack network. These users have a financial stake in the success of our ecosystem. We’re proud to deliver on our commitment to permit early community members who tried participating in 2017 but did not reach the wealth or income requirements for “Accredited Investor” status. These early community members were able to participate now at the same price as the 2017 Regulation D offering to Accredited Investors.

Building and testing privacy-centric technology should be a process that is open to everyone. We have now welcomed thousands of new contributors to our ecosystem as Stacks owners.

Finally, our SEC-qualified offering opened the door to expand our App Mining program. Through this program, we can start distributing Stacks (STX) tokens to developers who are building high-quality applications on the Blockstack network. Blockstack now has more than 250 apps on the network, most of them built in the last six months. The App Mining program plans to pay developers up to $1M STX per month by May 2020 and can potentially accelerate the growth of the Blockstack network.

What’s next?

Following the distribution of the tokens, which is expected to occur in 30 days, Blockstack PBC plans to use funds from the 2019 token offerings to fuel further growth of the Blockstack decentralized computing network. This includes supporting user acquisition efforts, creating educational and marketing materials, supporting community events, expanding into potential new territories, and more. We’re hiring!

When do I get my tokens?

We anticipate the hard fork distribution of tokens to take place approximately 30 days from now. We may extend the hard fork distribution by an additional 30 days if needed.

When will Stacks be on exchanges?

We announced earlier that we’re currently in discussions with international (non-US) exchanges for potential listings of Stacks (STX) tokens in Oct or later. If these listing were to occur, US persons would not be able to trade on such initial international exchanges.

I have other questions

If you have specific questions about your tokens, you may contact [email protected]. In the meantime, here are some highlighted FAQ’s you may find helpful (please see the complete list here).

I want to thank the Blockstack PBC team for their hard work and diligence in executing this first-ever SEC-qualified offering. This was a historic offering and can shape the path that the crypto industry takes not only in the US but abroad as well.


Important Disclaimer

The above announcement of the follow-on offering may be deemed to be “testing the waters” material under Rule 255 of the Securities Act. No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, will not be accepted, with respect to any such potential follow-on offering. No offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the amendment to the Offering Statement or new offering statement filed by the company with the SEC has been qualified by the SEC. Any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time before notice of acceptance given after the date of such qualification. A person’s indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. If such a follow-on offering does occur, you should read the amendment to the Offering Statement or new offering statement related to such follow-on offering before investing. The information provided in that offering statement or amendment will be more complete than the information we are providing now, and could differ in important ways.

Blockstack is not registered, licensed or supervised as a broker dealer or investment adviser by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or any other financial regulatory authority or licensed to provide any financial advice or services.

Forward-looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “will,” “expect,” “would,” “intend,” “believe,” or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this document include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans for developing the platform and future utility for the Stacks Token, a potential follow-on offering and launch of our network, and collaborations and partnerships. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different. More information on the factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause or contribute to such differences is included in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion & Analysis” sections of our offering statement on Form 1-A. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Muneeb Ali

Muneeb Ali

Dr. Muneeb Ali is the founder of Stacks, a decentralized network that brings apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin. He serves as the CEO of Hiro PBC, a Public Benefit Corp that builds developer tools for the Stacks blockchain. He has raised $75 million USD in funding from investors like Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Lux Capital, Winklevoss Capital, and others. Hiro (formerly Blockstack PBC) was featured in the CNBC's list of 100 promising startups to watch. Muneeb received his Ph.D. and Masters in Computer Science from Princeton University. His Ph.D. thesis was nominated for the ACM SIGCOMM dissertation award by Princeton University. Muneeb gives guest lectures on cloud computing at Princeton and his research publications have over 1,300 citations. He is one of the main characters in George Gilder's book Life After Google and was a technical advisor to the HBO show Silicon Valley.